I close my eyes, scrutinizing my gauntlet in my mind. Spewing fire can't be all it does....

There. A serrated ring around my wrist. I concentrate.....and the miniature saw blade whirrs, spins, and slices through the rope. I stand up quickly, finally able to cover my face from the putrid-smelling fog. I shake my head.

"Now. How can we get out?""Well, for one, we could blast open that door. But that might not work...""I know what we can do! We can create a diversion, get Hans and Matt to come back down here, and sneak out behind them!""Why are you talking to yourself as 'we'? You sound like Gollum.""I don't know. Can we get on with the plan?"

I make my way to the lever, and push it up as far as it goes. The fog fans stop pumping fumes into the room. Now that I can see, I look for a diversion.

Bingo. A wardrobe. If I can knock that over, it should make a loud enough noise. I put my back against the side and shove...

"It isn't budging! Is it attached to the wall?" It is. "Well, this is awkward." I open the wardrobe, expecting to find my usual closet. But this particular wardrobe is filled with Pringle tubes. Of course.

"They must think Pringles are a mandatory attachement to being a villain." I mutter, removing one to see more behind it. "Might as well, since they're here." I open a tube.

"What." It was filled, not with Pringles, but with slips of paper. I pick one up. "hanso'thesouthisles" "thelifeofabonnetfolly" "scoops97" "badbrosgoodsis"

"Passwords! All their passwords for everything!" Oh, the hacking possibilities.... Not now. I open another tube. This one is filled with thermal detonators. I quickly replace that one.

As I reached for a third tube, I hear clanging, shouts, and...gunshots. Oh no....this is probably really bad. I grab the tube, and the wardrobe silently slides away from a large dark hole.

I almost laugh out loud. "A secret passage! Could this escape get any better?" I whisper. I slip in, as the steel door starts to unlock...

Ariella snuck through the trees. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted May, Arona, and Vytanni doing the same, approaching a metal door in the side of a cliff. Etlo was also tagging along, mostly because he was the last person to have seen her, in Greenshade Caverns.

Knowing Aislinn, if she was gone for more than 5 hours, she'd probably been captured, or had gotten herself into some other sort of dilemma. So once the 5 hours had expired, Ariella had gone to search for Aislinn, run into Elto, decided Aislinn was probably in trouble by now, and gathered a rescue party.

Ariella had been able to track Aislinn's Aethermeter into the forest around No Man's Landing with the Aether-powered scanner she'd made back during the Evercity mission.

Now the scanner was leading them directly into the side of a cliff. Everyone made it to the door without any problems arising--except for the fact that the door was locked.

"Thwarted! And by a locked door, too," Ariella exclaimed, snapping her fingers.

"No problem. I'll just pick the lock," May said, taking out lockpick from her pocket and leaning down by the door.

"Everyone get ready," Vytanni said, and everyone quickly unhostered their pistols, put on their gauntlets, or took their dueling canes off of their belts.

In another minute, the door swung open with a click.

There was complete silence. Beyond the doorway, stairs descended into inky darkness.

"Aislinn? Are you down there?" called May, aiming her pistol down the stairs. "It's May!"

There was no answer.

Ariella took the first step, then had half a mind to go back. She forced herself to take another...and another. Then there was another dull...click... this one more muted that the click of the door.

Ariella's eyes widened and she mounted the stairs as quickly as she could, nearly mowing down Arona and Etlo, who had to duck to get through the doorway.

Behind her there was the sound of a gunshot, but everyone was clear of the doorway by that time. Arona and May fired into the darkness, and Ariella released a stream of electric energy from her Dulcet Defensive Vambrace.

Someone let out an exclamation, and Ariella figured she'd hit them. She took a smoke bomb off her belt and asked Vytanni to light it with her flamethrower.

As smoke began pouring from the green orb, Ariella tossed it into the tunnel and slammed the metal door shut with a loud CLANG.

"Any minute, whoever's down there will be scrambling to get out of the smoke, so we need to be ready to grab them. A whack from your hammer should be just the thing, May," Ariella suggested.

"I'm on it." May swung her large hammer off her back and positioned herself by the doorway.

In another minute, the door banged open and two people burst out. Two familiar people.

"Hans! Matt!" May shouted, too surprised to smash either of them.

"SMASH FIRST! ASK QUESTIONS LATER!" Ariella shouted, aiming her Vambrace at Hans. The smoke that was pouring out of the tunnel was becoming very thick...almost too thick to see.

I hear more shouting, as the door swings open. "No. No. No, not now." I whisper, slipping farther into the passage. I wish I knew how to close the entrance, but best make do with what I've got.

Suddenly, green smoke pours into the secret doorway. I start running, not thinking about what might be ahead. More shouting from behind me.

CRACK! A board snaps under my foot. I leap forward, but land on another rotten plank. SNAP! My foot falls through the resulting hole. I scream, forgetting the unknown people back in the office room. I manage to pull myself back out of the gap in the passage, but boards are cracking wherever I step.

Ariella decided to follow May down the stairs. She tugged on her gas mask and squinted in the darkness. She couldn't even see her hand in front of her face.

Taking the steps one by one, Ariella eventually made it to the bottom. "May!" she called out. She heard May's footsteps just ahead of her.

"I'm here!" May replied. "I can barely see anything! You just had to go and light a smoke bomb."

"Of course I did! How else were we going to get them out of here?"

A scream suddenly tore through the air, and Ariella rushed toward the sound. It had to be Aislinn! She used her Icicle to poke around, just in case there was an obstacle she might trip over.

The cane hit a wall. There was something...wooden...near the wall, maybe a door or a bookshelf. Ariella was sure this was the direction that the scream had come from. She felt around, discovering that the wooden object was more of a cabinet than anything.

She reached around the side of the cabinet and her hand plunged into empty air. "There's something over here!" Ari called to May, whose footsteps were cautiously approaching her.

"Where are you?" May's voice said, sounding as if it came from a far distance.

"Over by the wall next to a doorway or something. You're right next to me, I think."

I scramble ahead, boards falling into an unknown depth. I can barely see through the thick smoke seeping through the passage. My hands finally reach solid rock, and I leap backwards frantically.

Breathing hard, I stand to my shaking feet. I strain my ears, trying to make out the muffled voices growing nearer. It sounds familiar...but I know lots of people. And not all of them are friendly.

Then, a dull, resounding click. I hear the whirr of fans, and the smoke slowly clears. Showing a broken wooden pathway over a deep, black pit of indeterminable depth connecting the passage I had come through, to this stone island I now stand on. I turn to inspect this new area, and my jaw drops.

A grand piano, worn by time and covered in dust, stands in the center of the giant pillar ascending from the pit. Music sheets still rest on the lid, as if someone was just about to play.

After I found Danria, (or Vytanni, as I keep forgetting to call her) I've been trying to carve a niche for myself in the Resistance. The Resistance that I used to hate so much...

I've also been hiding from Lucky. I'm almost paranoid, jumping at shadows, having nightmares of being dragged back to the Academy, brainwashed back into the foggy non-life of an Autofficer, losing everything and everyone I've come to love.

I've met the Scarlet Man again, too. He's...helped me. Helped me heal from years and years of dirt and grime and ignorance. He gave me a mission. Protect them, Nikko. My agents need protection. Be a defender.

So I've been training. I've gotten exponentially better with my Riveters, and I've upped my game at stealth, endurance, speed, strength, and devotion. I've even made friends with Etlo, Vytanni's Aethermatron friend. I remember the prototype I helped Mr. Whyatov invent, but this version is way better. 300% more efficient, and even self-aware! (He did almost kill me the first time we met, but we've patched up.)

Which brings me to today. I've been charged with the most unexpected quest I've ever undertaken.

Protecting Aislinn.

So here I am, following an Aethermeter signal to the place where Aislinn disappeared almost seven hours ago. The signal stops at the side of a high, tree covered cliff in the forest near town.

"SMASH FIRST! ASK QUESTIONS LATER!" I hear someone shout, just out of my range of vision. I investigate.

Vytanni, Etlo, and the two girls that had spoken up at Aislinn's meeting are standing near a heavy iron vault door pouring green smoke, weapons drawn and raised. Two boys run out, coughing. The girls start yelling at the boys, one of whom is face-to-face with Etlo, while the other runs off towards me.

I duck behind a tree before he sees me. As he runs by, I shoot out my arm and catch his dark blue cape. "Hey! Let go!" he shouts, trying to pull away from me. "Hold on, I'm not going to hurt you, What are you doing?" He does a double take, staring at me.

"You're Nikko! I'm not doing anything, honest! I'm not really working for the Empire, we were just siding with them for a while! We didn't even mean to find Aislinn, she just walked into a trap!" Wait, what?

"Aislinn? She's back there?" I point to the door in the cliff, spouting increasingly opaque smoke. This isn't good... "Stay here. Don't go anywhere." I point to the ground. He nods, obviously intimidated. I make for the entrance, hoping that smoke isn't Ruka fog...

I race past Vytanni, Etlo, and the other boy, ignoring their surprised shouts. If that's Ruka fog, Aislinn's in big trouble. Even a brief re-exposure could set off an irreversible chain reaction... I stumble down a set of steps, waving my arms to avoid smacking into anything.

"May!" the red-haired girl calls, as blind as I am in the near-opacity. "I'm here! I can barely see anything!" the blond one replies. "You just had to go and light a smoke bomb..." "Of course I did! How else were we going to get them out of here?"

As I try to find my bearings, a piercing shriek splits the thick air. I follow the sound, recognizing Aislinn's voice. I try not to let the girls know I'm here, so I cautiously creep toward the origin of the scream.

"Where are you?" the blond girl, May, shouts from the other side of the room. "Over by the wall next to a doorway or something. You're right next to me, I think." I hold my breath. She knows I'm here...

"AAAAAAAGHGGHGHGH!!!!" She whirls on me, close enough that I can see her, just barely. I hold up my hands. "It's ok, don't hit me!" I back up a couple steps, and my head hits some kind of switch. It clicks, and fans start whirring. The thick smoke slowly dissipates, and I see a dark passage next to a sliding wardrobe.

"That's where she is!" I cry, and leap past the astonished girl. I run through the dark hallway, but stop cold when I reach a broken wood-plank bridge. Aislinn is standing on an island in the middle of a deep, abysmal pit. Her back is to me, and she's staring at an old, dusty grand piano.

"This adventure just took a strange turn." I say with a smirk. She whirls.

"Nikko!" Her face is incredibly joyful, more than I would've expected. I smile back. "Hey, Ace. How's your arm?"

"AAAAAAAGHGGHGHGH!!!!" I screeched, automatically raising my Icicle to take a whack at the intruder. Wait, had he just said he was Nikko?

I could barely see through the gas mask, but he raised his hands to signal surrender. "It's ok, don't hit me!" he exclaimed, backing out of my field of vision. There was a dull thump, and the smoke began to dissipate. How had that happened? Oh, Nikko had turned on several fans.

Nikko jumped past me into a dark tunnel, shouting something I barely understood. I stared in astonishment after him.

May approached me from across the room. "Well, are we gonna follow him?" she asked me.

I mentally shook myself. I had to stop getting distracted and focus! "Oy, of course we are," I replied with a smirk.

Matt chuckles as Nikko runs off towards the commotion. He pulls out his transmitter. "Bonnetfolly to Overseer Grimm. Come in, Overseer Grimm."

"Yes? What is it?" "Everything is going according to plan. Both Mollisong and Bestburst are in the building, as well as Newheart and Otterview. Throttlenight and Maxlance are outside, but they might go in at any second."

"Good work. And what of your partner?" Matt sighs. "He got caught by Maxlance, but I'll take care of it. He won't talk."

“Well, are we gonna follow him?” I say, wondering if Air was going to move or not, “Oy, of course we are,” Air replied. I decided to let her take the lead as we headed down the dark tunnel. ”Iv’e got a bad feeling about this place” I mutter as the entrance disappears behind us.

I crept through the dark tunnel...something was just up ahead. The tunnel transitioned into a large cavern with a stone pillar in the center.

I gulped as I looked down into the abyss surrounding the pillar. Nikko was just up ahead, talking to Aislinn, who stood on the pillar next to a...piano of all things.

An old bridge spanned the gap between the island of rock and the tunnel, looking ready to collapse if someone even poked it.

"I'll just watch from back here..." I whispered to May, and crept back into the shadows of the tunnel. If only I had some popcorn right about now! I had a feeling that things were about to get interesting really quickly.

"So, how did you get into this one?" "Uh, yeah, funny story. You see, I was looking for the Warfalcon, and Etlo almost smashed me, and I got caught in a trap in the woods for some reason, woke up here, almost got turned back into an Automaton, escaped, and ended up back here. Make sense?"

He's completely horrified. "Turned back...they didn't use Ruka fog, did they!?" "Yeah...I think so." He's kinda freaking out... "We have to get you home, and to a doctor!"

"Ok. Well, first lets figure out this piano." Maybe there's a code in this music...

I sit down on the ancient bench, running my hands over the yellowed keys. Alright, let's figure out this music. I set it against the lid.

"Falcon's Flight"

"Hmm, that seems familiar. Let's see if I can play it." Fumblingly, I pick out the first notes. I run through it a couple times, then play it through. It's a beautiful melody, soaring, lilting, singing. It makes me want to know the words so I can sing with it. The sheet is hand-written, the notes round and perfect.

I finish the piece with a soft chord. Nothing happens. "Ok, then. Hey, Nikko, what say we figure out this bridge?" But Nikko isn't paying attention. He's got his pistols out, staring back into the tunnel.

"We've got worse problems, Ace. There is beeping. And somebody's back there."

Aislinn sat down at the piano and began to play a song. It was a beautiful song, and my nervousness melted away as I listened. As she ended the song, she said something to Nikko, but he was looking back into the dark tunnel where May and I hid.

"We've got worse problems, Ace," Nikko was saying. "There is a beeping. And somebody's back there."

I realized that Nikko didn't know we had followed him here. I should probably identify myself before he shot at me with his riveter pistols.

And now that Nikko had pointed it out, I was aware of a steady beeping sound coming from somewhere nearby.

"It's okay, kid," I spoke, working up the nerve to creep out of the shadows and to the edge of the precipice. I made sure that the way I enunciated the word kid conveyed my displeasure at being called one. "It's just Ariella and May."

"And we're not making that beeping sound," May said, putting away her small listening device.

"Oh. Guys. Why didn't you tell me you were here?!" I shout at May and Ariella. "Also, any ideas? I've been stuck over here for a while, and the piano didn't do anything. And also, Nikko, didn't you say something about a doctor? I didn't really get that part, but-"

I'm suddenly cut off by an excruciating pain slicing through my chest. I cry out, and crumple to the floor. "Aisy!" May yells, activating her Mando jetpack and rocketing over the gap. Ariella gasps, and Nikko runs his hand through his hair.

"THAT'S what the doctor thing was about! If you were exposed to any amount of Ruka virus, it could cause an irreversible chain reaction! You could go full Auto, for good." I can barely hear him. My head is pounding, and my ears are roaring. I can just barely hear May yelling, "Aisy! Aisy, get up!" We'll get you out!"

But I was far away, feeling the cold, hard metal creeping across my body....

When Aislinn finishes playing “Falcons Flight” on the piano my listening device stops working ugh, what’s wrong with this thing?I hear a quiet beeping, hmmmm“It’s okay, kid,” Airiella says, “it’s Just Ariella and May” I glance up and see Nikko and Aislinn looking at us, they must have finally noticed we had followed them.“And we're not making that beeping sound” I say, putting away my nonfunctional listening device.“Oh. Guys. Why didn’t you tell me you were here?!” Aislinn shouts, “Also, any ideas? I’ve been stuck over here for a while, and the piano didn’t do anything. And also, Nikko, didn’t you say something about a doctor? I didn’t really get to that part, but-“ She stops abruptly and screams, collapsing onto the ground.“Aisy!” I shout, jetpacking across the pit and landing next to her.Nikko says something, but I can’t hear him. “Aisy! Aisy get up! We'll get you out!" I say, we can’t just stay here, we have to get her to a doctor!I see metal creeping across her. I stare, stunned.”No....”

As Aislinn crumples to the ground, the girl in the green armor pulls out a jetpack from nowhere and shoots over the gap. She shouts at Aislinn, trying to wake her up. I turn to the red-haired kid.

"We need to get her to the hospital, now. The longer we wait, the less chance we'll have of fixing it." She's scared, probably in shock a little bit. The stupid beeping is driving me insane.

"What's going on!?" Vytanni and Etlo pound through the passage, with a miserable boy in tow. "Nikko? Ariella? May? Aislinn?!??!" "No time. Vytanni, cover us. You," I pointed to the red-haired girl. "Go find out what that blasted beeping is. May, get her over here. Etlo, you're going to carry her. Go! We don't have much time!"

They scurry to do what I say. I'm really surprised they listen, but I guess they'll do anything for Aislinn. May awkwardly scoops her up and fires her jetpack. They make it over safe, and Etlo picks her up with one arm.

Vy holds on to the other boy, and Red comes back through the passage, carrying something small, metal, and beeping.

She shouts, "I don't know what this is, but it's probably going to explode! The coast is clear! Let's get out of here!"

A dark figure flits through the shadows. It emerges from Urchin's Grotto. As it runs under a green-tinted streetlight, a flash of purple is visible. The figure looks up. Light floods her face, showing deep brown eyes, chocolate-colored bangs, and a slightly unsettling smile...

As I walked through the streets of No Man's Landing I saw a Urchin crawling out of his humble little hovel. "You got anything to spare guv," said the urchin. "Sure." I handed him two things, an Clockwork furnace and a Aether Boiler. I started to walk away when the urchin stopped me to ask me a question. "What's your name sir?" All I said was, "I'd rather not say." I wandered back into the streets and saw a man staring at a girl in a grey suit. I steered clear of the two people and thought it was best if I avoided others until I made contact with base. I saw a Pacifier that was staring at me for some reason. It was scanning me! Then I remembered what Alexander told me, DON'T MAKE EYE CONTACT. So I started to break into a jog and speeding up into a run. "Stop right there!" I realized I couldn't run back to the Beacon because I would then be putting the team into jeopardy. I thought I could out run the Pacifier but man! They are fast. So I thought I could fight the Pacifier. I was wrong. There where two Bombardiers, five Troubleshooters, and two Pacifiers, and one Pacifier Officer. "Ah great!" I said. "I might as well." I remarked as I ignited my Flame cane, and I charged at the mass of Automatons.